Page 50 - Studio International - September 1966
P. 50
Mixed shows and feelings
London commentary by Edward Lucie-Smith
This is the season of mixed shows and mixed feelings— Idioms, now at the ROBERT FRASER Gallery. There are, as
regret that there isn't solider fare; regret that some artists it happens, one or two quite interesting points of com-
aren't shown more richly and extensively. One, as it parison. The work of Roy Lichtenstein figures in both
happens, has received quite a big showing recently—a shows; he is represented at the Hanover by a drawing,
number of good pictures by Magritte turned up not only but at the Robert Fraser Gallery by a group of new works
in the show devoted to him at the ZWEMMER GALLERY —a Seascape which uses the devices of Op Art; a Standing
(which has just closed), but in the current mixed exhibi- Explosion which is a venture into three dimensions, and
tion at the HANOVER GALLERY as well. This latter, entitled one of the controversial Brushstroke paintings. These are
The Poetic Image, is a celebration of surrealism, taking that Lichtenstein at his most extreme, while the work at the
word in a fairly broad sense. It abounds in phallic objects Hanover, The Temple of Apollo, shows him at his most
and phallic references : a gigantic red polystyrene thumb acceptable.
by Cesar; the Coca-Cola bottle perched on a column by It is even more informative to consider the contrast
H. C. Westermann; the tower which dominates a paint- between two different pieces of sculpture —Manzù's
ing of the middle 'thirties by Salvador Dali; the little Chair with drapery and olive bough, and Clive Barker's Van
bobbin-shaped figure in Ernst's sculpture Deux et deux Gogh's chair. Both of these pieces are in metal : the Manzù
font un. Despite this, however, it seems curiously mild and in bronze, the Barker in chrome-plated steel. In each
polite when compared with an exhibition called New case, we are confronted with a 'real' chair, transformed
Right
Roy Lichtenstein
Standing Explosion 1965
Enamelled metal
38 in. high
Robert Fraser Gallery
Far right
Andy Warhol
Flowers 1965
Serigraph on canvas
14+ x 14+ in.
Robert Fraser Gallery
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